Kevin Duffy: Mets' Harvey deserving of All-Star start

Updated 9:51 pm, Monday, July 15, 2013

Photo: Bruce Bennett, Getty Images

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NEW YORK, NY - JULY 15: National League All-Star Matt Harvey #33 of the New York Mets gestures during Gatorade All-Star Workout Day on July 15, 2013 at Citi Field in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. less

NEW YORK, NY - JULY 15: National League All-Star Matt Harvey #33 of the New York Mets gestures during Gatorade All-Star Workout Day on July 15, 2013 at Citi Field in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens ... more

Photo: Bruce Bennett, Getty Images

Kevin Duffy: Mets' Harvey deserving of All-Star start

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NEW YORK -- Eleven pitchers in MLB history have made All-Star starts on their home fields.

But there's something different about this one, about Matt Harvey's utter dominance at 24 years old, about the Mets' utter irrelevance for much of Harvey's lifetime, about all of baseball's sideshows put on pause for one night.

Tonight, New York can celebrate everything good about its most treasured sport.

And simple as it sounds, that's rare these days.

This season's midsummer classic marks the last go-around for Mariano Rivera, the undisputed king at his position. It's a night for David Wright, productive and loyal to this insipid Mets franchise for nearly a decade. And, most of all, it's a night for Harvey, the NL's starting pitcher, the man responsible for this new buzz around Citi Field.

"To have the opportunity to take the ball is something I'll never forget," Harvey said. "I'm very thankful, especially at home, in my first All-Star game, I'm very, very thankful."

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And very, very deserving.

"I know he wanted this very bad," said Mets manager Terry Collins, who will serve as a coach for the NL. "He wanted this desperately. He deserves to be out there. I wish he would have his 12 wins, but that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve to be on the mound."

Harvey enters the All-Star break 7-2. If he were playing on another team, he'd probably be 11-2. On four separate occasions, he yielded just one earned run and received a no-decision. Two weeks ago, it came in a 6-4 loss to Washington; Harvey surrendered three hits and struck out 11 in seven innings. Before that, it was against the Yankees. It was a masterful eight-inning, 10-strikeout performance that ended improbably when Rivera blew the save without recording a single out, a first in his unparalleled career.

The record books won't say Harvey earned that win. In reality, he did.

Some will inevitably say Harvey didn't earn this start, that Clayton Kershaw and his league-leading 1.98 ERA should be taking the mound. NL manager Bruce Bochy says otherwise.

"It really wouldn't have mattered what city we were playing in," Bochy said. "With the year (Harvey) has had, with the impressive numbers he's put up, he would have been the starting pitcher."

As Harvey said Monday, this will only fuel him more. Since the beginning, Harvey has made no secret of his desire to dominate -- not merely compete -- at the highest level. He'd go five innings if Bochy let him, Collins said, because a night like this doesn't come around often.

Truthfully, a player like Harvey doesn't come around often. His stuff, as NL MVP candidate Paul Goldschmidt put it, is "unbelievable."

"He locates, he throws a ton of strikes, his secondary pitches -- change-up, curveball, slider -- are all good pitches," Goldschmidt said. "Fortunately and unfortunately, I didn't get to face him."

A year younger than Goldschmidt, Harvey is quickly evolving into one of the league's real superstars. Tonight, he'll become the youngest pitcher to start an All-Star game since Doc Gooden in 1988. He also joins Gooden and Tom Seaver as the only Mets to earn the prestigious start.

By all accounts, Harvey has handled the sudden fame -- the paparazzi snapping him and his supermodel girlfriend, the Gooden/Seaver comparisons -- as well as anyone can. Collins says he has a "veteran's mentality," learned partially from Wright, who was in Harvey's position -- sort of -- when the Mets were last relevant.

"David Wright personifies exactly what you want a major league player to be," Collins said. "Not just talent-wise, but his leadership."

On June 29, when Harvey was 7-1 with a spot on this All-Star roster long sewn up, he publicly campaigned for his teammate, tweeting "If you're not voting for David Wright, something is seriously wrong. Absolute beast and over-deserving."

Wright, of course, won the fan vote, edging out San Francisco third baseman Pablo Sandoval. He's batting .304 with 44 RBIs, providing the little run support that Harvey has received. Tonight, he'll bat cleanup in front of his home fans, many of them wearing the Mets No. 5 jersey.

"In my eyes, this is the baseball capital, the baseball Mecca of the world," Wright said, "so to be able to have it on this stage, pretty special is an understatement."

For one night, it's the perfect stage, void of drama or controversy or any of the B.S. that has come to be associated with Major League Baseball. In 2008, when the All-Star game was held at Yankees stadium, Alex Rodriguez was the lone starter from the home team. In 2007, that distinction belonged to Barry Bonds.

In 2004, the last time a pitcher got the All-Star start on his own mound, Roger Clemens was lit up for six runs in the first inning, taking the loss at the Astros' ballpark.

This year isn't anything like that.

This year, the home crowd -- really, the whole baseball world -- can celebrate true icons: Wright the most loyal of captains, the embodiment of everything a professional athlete should be; Harvey among the brightest stars of a new generation, the sole cause for optimism these days at Citi Field.